We love Estes Park! It’s just next to Rocky Mountain National Park, which is full of beautiful hiking trails and scenery, and the views from anywhere in the vicinity are gorgeous. We thought we would primarily go there in the summer, and the summer is definitely wonderful, but we have found Estes to be a delightful place to retreat to at any time of year!
On July 3rd of 2013 we finished the construction of a vacation rental house in a beautiful location with a little creek in back, the town walking/biking path on the other side of the creek, the golf course behind that, and beautiful mountain views beyond that, with a magnificent view of Long’s Peak to the south.
On September 12th, when we were out of the country, I noticed a Facebook post that mentioned it had been raining hard for several days. As we watched from afar, the little 2-foot-wide creek behind our house was flooded and when the sun came back out again, the creek had widened to 50 feet and moved 20-30 feet to the west, the house four doors down was lost, the house three doors down had sustained major damage. Two doors down had some minor damage.
Residents in the little neighborhood were without power and water and sewer for several weeks and had to find other places to stay until infrastructure had been repaired. We returned to the house for a few wonderful days with the kids over Thanksgiving and although the back yard of the house looked quite different, our house was fine.
The repairs to the creek and walking path to town (behind us) and the road (in front) are now nearly complete and it’s been an impressive project to watch.
Hither, Yon and Skies 